Posts

It was a great pleasure to meet the Health Secretary on his recent visit to Leeds after launching his new “tech vision” for the health service. I met Matt Hancock MP at the ODI in the centre of Leeds on Friday 19 October 2018 and talked him through our development for Helm – an open platform solution for a person held record.

I was able to share with him the UI/UX experience of Helm as it looks right now and was pleased to hear very positive responses both from the Health Secretary and his Chief Technology Advisor, Hadley Beeman. Helm has been in development for a number of months to ensure that we’ve got strong foundations for people accessing and contributing to their own health and wellbeing information. It has involved passionate work from a number of highly experienced technical people as well as clinically direction from Dr Tony Shannon, along with strong creative development from Simon Gamester.

Helm benefits from a number of innovative technologies supported by Ripple Foundation, namely, PulseTile, QEWD.js and EtherCIS and is underpinned by the internationally leading open standard for healthcare, openEHR. It also conforms to the well received paper “Defining an Open Platform” by Apperta Foundation.

The exciting journey of Helm being tested by people in Leeds starts very shortly. People are at the heart of this product and they will now lead the way in its future development. Users of Helm will be able to tell us what works and what doesn’t, what would be useful, what is missing and Ripple Foundation is very excited to be a large part of this new innovation with the city of Leeds, led by Leeds City Council. The plans for Helm are for rapid expansion into the Yorkshire and Humber region. We will keep posting news on the Ripple Foundation website but do get in touch if you would like to understand more about our open platform approach for addressing some of the issues faced by Health IT.

Thank you to ODI Leeds for supplying the photos taken during the session with the Health Secretary.

We are proud to be supporting Yorkshire and Humber’s successful bid to become a Local Health and Care Record Exemplar with our technical solution for a Person Held Record called Helm. This is a credit to their national and international leadership in this field and a sign of a change in the health IT marketplace.

The delivery of an open standards and open platform based person held record was originally supported by the city of Leeds thanks to the leadership of Dylan Roberts, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Leeds City Council, but will now be made available to the geographical footprint that makes up Yorkshire and Humber, involving over 70 organisations. It is also being discussed in other Local Integrated Care Record Exemplar areas including Greater Manchester with Salford Royal GDE moving to explore the technology.

The benefits of supporting an open platform approach allows Helm to be built in such a way so that it will becomes accessible across geographies and care providers regardless of the clinical system in use.

Helm puts users in control of their own health and care data by allowing them to view and add to key information, starting with medical data and growing to include wider public services. For the first time, the public will be able to see and interact with their own records and data on an easy to use, secure, online platform that encourages them to take control of their own health and wellbeing. Helm reflects this new position with a “Take Control, Take the Helm” strapline and call to action.

Dr Tony Shannon, Director at Ripple Foundation added, “Over the past few months we’ve noticed a real shift in emphasis within the Health IT sector towards adopting an open platform with open standards. At Ripple Foundation we truly believe this is the only way to stop the mediocrity of an underperforming health IT sector. By building Helm on an open platform, in line with the international openEHR standard, we are working to support a transformative move to future proof healthcare IT systems.

Tony continued, “Ripple Foundation’s mission is to improve the care of patients and citizens alike by providing technology that supports their needs and delivers easy to use systems that are scalable and cost effective.”

Helm will adopt the Ripple Foundation’s showcase stack which can be broken into three levels:

PulseTile – leading edge UX/UI framework developed by Ripple Foundation

Each component harnesses the power of open source and aims to demonstrate open standards in action to show that there is a different way to provide technology into the health and care systems and ultimately to the users of Helm.

For further information about the Helm and open platform technology please contact info@ripple.foundation.

ENDS

Ripple Foundation is a community interest company that is supporting the adoption of an open health and care platform. It is a clinically led team that working with communities to support using an integrated digital care platform for today and the future. Open source, open standards and underpinned by an open architecture that can be used worldwide.

For media enquiries about Ripple Foundation, please contact info@ripple.foundation or visit the website for more information www.ripple.foundation

https://ripple.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Helm-logo_RGB_with-strapline.png564763Rebecca Nichellshttps://ripple.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/header-icon300.pngRebecca Nichells2018-06-28 07:54:482018-06-28 07:54:48Proud to be supporting Helm across the Yorkshire and Humber Region

Leeds is leading the way in developing and piloting an open platform based Person Held Record (PHR) for local people. It follows extensive engagement with individuals, care professionals and stakeholders across the city to understand their needs and aspirations. It is believed a PHR will help people to better manage and control their own care and wellbeing and help prevent further health issues.

The PHR programme will be led by Leeds City Council in partnership with NHS organisations across the city. The technology will be built on an internationally leading open source platform for the health and care sector, developed in Leeds by the Ripple Foundation. Leeds’ philosophy around digital technology of simplify, standardise and share allows flexibility and scalability with the intention to share easily with others across the nation.

Phase one will enable people to register, verify their identity and log into their PHR. It will let people contribute and update information about themselves, for example, a top three things to know about me. It will also integrate with the Leeds Care Record that is widely used by care professionals across the city.

Councillor Rebecca Charlwood, Chair of the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board said, “Leeds is the second largest city in the UK outside London, with a diverse population of over 770,000 people. We need to nurture a health and care system where people have more conversations and opportunities to help unlock the best solutions for them. The Person Held Record programme is a key enabler of this work.”

“The city of Leeds has the skills and ability to create cutting edge technology for its citizens. The decision to develop a Person Held Record is another clear example”, said Dylan Roberts, chief digital and information officer for Leeds City Council. “We will work closely with the people of Leeds, care professionals and national organisations to ensure any technology we build and implement can be reused across the nation.”

Dr Jason Broch, GP partner at Oakwood Lane Medical Practice and Chair of the Leeds Informatics Board said, “Patients need to access their record to allow them to understand their health and wellbeing better and input their own information to take a more active role. It is the missing piece of the jigsaw towards truly integrated care. In Leeds we believe a Person Held Record will be central to this change.”

Leeds is also hoping the market will help create apps and functionality that will work with the open platform because they conform to the standards set. For example, if you have a chronic long term condition, you will be able to personalise your PHR with this information, allowing for a more joined up view.

Dr Tony Shannon, Director at Ripple Foundation added, “Healthcare is suffering from an underperforming health IT sector which makes it harder for care professionals to work with their patients efficiently and effectively. By building their Person Held Record on an open platform, in line with the international open EHR standard, Leeds has started a transformational move to future proof its healthcare IT systems.

Tony continued, “Ripple Foundation’s mission is to improve the care of patients and citizens alike by providing technology that supports their needs and delivers easy to use systems that are scalable and cost effective.”

For further information about the Person Held Record in Leeds please contact dylan.roberts@leeds.gov.uk If you are interested in the technology of an open platform please contact info@ripple.foundation

https://ripple.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/aaron-burden-329406.jpg34484592Ripple Foundationhttps://ripple.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/header-icon300.pngRipple Foundation2017-10-05 15:13:562017-10-05 15:17:35Leeds trail blazing with an open platform Person Held Record